Taming of the Shrew Blogs!

So like my colleague Freddie Badgery the glorious bots of the website have deemed me worthy of having my own blog. So in short I have decided to post my blogs from the rehearsal process that have appeared before on facebook. I will also mention that "The Taming of the Shrew" is in its final week this week and biased though I am I strongly encourage you to come along and see this free production! You may find all the details on the event listing on this site. Without further ado here are my blogs: BLOG I So here we are... A blog... The truth of every human being is that we are all our own harshest critics. The inner critic, however harsh it may be, should be seperated from the inner demon. The critic says "that could have been better...this needs fixing...it lacks pace...you might be over doing it" etc. whereas the inner demon is that voice that says "you're useless... you'll never amount to anything... you're ugly...you're fat" etc. It is an unfortunate cycle that our inner critic can fuel the fires of our demons and so what I have been expermenting with of late is ways in which to embrace the critic but leave the demon behind. I have found great consolation in the works of Michael Chekov (Nephew to Anton). Chekov says that we should explore the difference between the creative space and what I am calling the "work-a-day world". The work-a-day world is what we bring when we first come into the theatre before performance or rehearsal. It's in this world that our demon thrives. The creative world however is a place in which to quote Peter Brooke "The invisable is made visable". It's a world in which anything is possible, all things can take place and anything that we do within it is done with confidence and is done with a sense of being well done. It is important to remember that when we do return from the creative world we allow our critic to speak to us. Remember our critic is not trying to hurt us it is trying to make us better, our critic is that part of ourselves that wants us to succeed and be perfect in the things we do. Next time you are doing anything no matter how harsh the commentary listen to the critic but ignore the demon! I've just realised I sound like some sort of self help tape (there's the demon) nonetheless I think its useful advice. So "Shrew". I am not attempting anything grandiose with "shrew". I have no grand vision or pretention to thinking that what I am trying to achieve is earth shatteringly original. What I want to achieve is a show that is above all else entertaining. A show that people will walk away from content and safe in the knowledge that they have had fun. For those of you who know me well, you will probably be pulling your jaws up from the carpet. For those of you who don't know me I shall explain. I am a Brechtian (if such a things exists) and I believe that theatre is transformative and that it can empower people to want to go out and change the world we live in. Something which is crucial in the world we live in, without change this world will end far before its time. Now here's the rub, people are being bombarded with the same message every day and it has gotten to saturation point. Not a day goes by when I don't hear of global warming, war and economic crisis. Especially now that we stand on the brink of an economic disaster which could potentially make 1929 look like a tea party. My point is that people have become so saturated by the message of change that they have stopped listening or simply stopped caring. It's a hard truth to face up to but it is the truth. So what does all this have to do with "shrew". Well, I believe that we need to attract new audiences to theatre. How do we do this? Take it back to the basics. Get them in and entertained. Let them know that going to the theatre is not just for the "art crowd" or the upper and upper middle classes (anyone who says Australia has no class system is a dope) and once we have them in and comfortable. That's when we can begin use theatre to say "This is how the world is, do you think its right or wrong?". In essence the grand scheme is to create the Verfremdungseffekt not in the course of one production but over the course of years. ...very complicated and in depth for what's supposed to be a light hearted blog... Yet this is presently what is at the forefront of my mind especially when I think of "Shrew". Maybe I should close on this thought, you have the right to go to the theatre and be entertained and enjoy what you see for enjoyments sake. I whole heartedly encourage you to do this. Just remember that you also have the right to feel and be angry about the state of the world. Never let your demon's or anyone elses tell you that trying to change the world for the better is a stupid thing to do. BLOG II And welcome to another exciting edition of my director blog. I set myself a task this week to see whether or not I could refrain from loading this quasi gonzo article with long words and my extensive theorising. Let's see how "epic fail" I am. There comes a time in life when you have a moment of clarity and you think to yourself. I am filled with various posions, I must detox. Don't peddle you're caffine here, Mr Cola. Stay away from me delecious sugar-y pastry thing. BEGONE from my sight alchohol you sluttish nymph of the depraved! You also begin to have dreams of granduer. You want to go climbing up to tibetan monestrys and sitting in contemplation for many years. You start talking about organic food and how much better green tea is for you. Anti oxidants suddenly become very important and you might just finally get round to starting that herb garden you've always wanted. Then you start to direct... THANK GOD FOR CAFFINE! I'll never leave you again! OH SWEET STICKY BUNS OF JOY GIVE ME YOUR ENERGY BOOST! Darling alchohol come back to me TAKE AWAY THE PAIN! SOD the monks and that wanky herb garden, I HAVE NO TIME! Within my crack addled moments of degredation there are moments of absolute creative zen. Like a well built machine all the elements come together before you and produce an astounding whole. Your mind becomes clearer, thoughts quicker and you get a taste of the creative freedom all artists go looking for. Every week there are more and more of these moments in "shrew". "All the pieces seem to just fit into place" to quote frank-n-furter, though I am generally considerably more clothed than Frank. So I guess the point is, no matter how much we crave artificial stimulants in order to achieve various highs, be it from taking the edge off the early morning start to that boost of energy mid way through the day, nothing can compare with the high the creative freedom brings. So I set you all a challenge. If, like me, your life seems often to consist of very mundane things start to free yourself from it through creativity. Until next time, GB BLOG III OOh yes another exciting edition of Garreth Blog... Though it's more like a glorified "self gratification" session seeing as I am probably the only one who reads the damn thing and thats because I write it...Anywho just in case there are any die hard fans out there who wish to remain anonymous I shall continue. I guess the biggest world news of late is that Obama is the president elect of the united states. So is this good news or bad? Surely a black democrat could never be as bad as Bush! Yet I would like you to consider why who's running the united states of america should have any major bearing on us at all. Why should we be caring as to whether or not Obama got in? Why should many of my friends be quietly hoping for the election of a president in another country? All the answers to those questions are obvious. Yet we need to ask the deeper question, is it wrong that the US should have that much power and control? If so, why is it wrong and what can we do about it? Exactly how much does the US influence our culture? Did we allow this influence to happen or did it take place in a more insidious way? Brecht wrote: "Why rob a bank when you can start one!" and now i'm saying, why invade a country when you can create one. After all if you strip a country of its identity and replace it with one made in another image have you not effectively created a new country? Especially a country that's going to tow a political line. The world could never like Bush, he was the lesser offspring of a lesser american president, he was uncomfortable in public, slow on the uptake and too much of a warmonger for anyone's tastes. Yet with Obama in charge how many of us will still feel inclined to stand up to american cultural indoctrination. Yes Obama does seem to be a sobre and level headed human being but why should we be any less on guard? So what's all this to do with theatre? Well, not a great deal in the short term. In the long term however it reminds us that we must always remember theatre's power to inform opinions and ask the hard questions. In a world that is getting smaller and smaller we must remind ourselves that artistic freedom and every other freedom we enjoy comes at the price of eternal vigilance. I find myself continually coming back to Orwell's 1984 and continually thinking about the conotations of double speak. For those of you who do read this and are scratching your heads in confusion. Go out and find a copy of "1984" and read it. I don't think the book was ever more relevant than it is right now. So just how far can we push people? I was working with a student last week and he suggested that people who harm their children should not be allowed to have children. "Should we licence the parents?" I asked "Yes and it should be taken away when they do something wrong" "This is what child protective services do anyway" I informed him I then suggested that perhaps the licence should be administered before parents were allowed to give birth. There was the general acknowledgement that this was wrong. "why?" I asked. There was a hushed silence. In order for the students to be able to articulate their feelings I asked them to adopt the characters of people who wanted to have children and were waiting to have an interview at the child licencing office. When they opened there eyes they were in a cue waiting to speak to the officer in charge (me). They were then asked a series of upfront personal questions under the guise of "we need to make sure that your child is a valuable member of society". Some of my favourite questions were "What were your marks in high school?" (if they gave an answer like "I was top of my class in everything" I would retort with "my file shows your outcomes were mediocre at best") "I see your father was a janitor, we have enough janitors." (pick a physical imperfection) "why does your (insert imperfection) do that?" Say the alphabet backwards. Etc. After the improv everyone agreed that I was being too harsh. So I let the young man who had asked the question in the first place play my role and I asked him to play it in a way that he deemed to be acceptable. He replied that issuing a licence to have a child was unacceptable as it gave one person too much power over the life of another person. He suggested that the licence should be assumed until abused at which point your right to have children would be revoked. So the scenario was set up that a couple had a son of the age of twelve who was a real tear-a-way and had started laying claims that his dad was abusing him, in reality this wasn't happening. The student playing the judge was unaware that the boy had made the story up. The trial progressed and questions were asked and the assumption was made that the boy was telling the truth. In the end the judge revoked the licence of the parents so that they could no longer have kids. We then explained to the student playing the judge that the child was infact lying. I then also explained that thankfully there is a bit more of a process involved in real cases but that I was aware of at least two cases that I have heard of where the child was in fact lying and removed from their parents. The students came to the conclusion that introducing a child licence makes too much of an assumption that the system is always going to get it right. I asked the two playing the parents how it felt for them to know they would never legally be allowed to have kids again even though they did no wrong. They replied that it felt awful and that their characters were really angry and how unfair it felt to have the freedom to live your life like you wanted to taken away from them. The student who had raised the issue in the first place then exclaimed that he was really annoyed at me. "Why?" I asked him "Because I don't like to be wrong" "what makes you think your wrong?" "Because of what we just did" "So why are you annoyed at me?" "Because you made us do the exercise" "But I never told you what to feel and think and whether that what you were feeling and thinking was right or wrong" "You still made us do it" "So I demanded you explore the issue?" "Yes" "and why is this a bad thing or something to be annoyed about?" and probably what was one of the most intelligent responses i've ever heard come out of a 16 year old "Because you took away my freedom to have that opinion by making me explore it" I laughed because he was absolutely right. I had completely taken away his freedom to hold an opinion by making him explore it and realise it was wrong. "So, is your opinion now changed?' I asked "yes, but i'm annoyed that it is." I've certainly thought back to this situation many times over the last week and its a good example I think of just how far we can push someone before they get annoyed. We can entertain them, make them cry and laugh but if we try to change their opinions by making them explore their feelings thats when they draw a line. I guess its the ultimate kick in the teeth seeing something that forces you to explore an issue you thought you were right about only to find out you were wrong. Especially when the only person who makes any attempt to convince you of the opposite opinion is yourself! Is this then why people hate Brecht? Did Berty get it right? Are students annoyed by Brecht because he demands you rethink your opinions and choices? Are we really that lazy and set in our ways that we refuse to explore opinions contradictory to our own? Maybe I should be exploring more Boal? (In who's work the majority of the above exercised is based) Maybe I should leave the political theatre alone and be content to just entertain people? Now is a time the world should be asking questions! Sadly the majority of those questions will be "what's on TV?" BLOG IV So here we are at last... Production week. The magical week where I am forced to ask myself many important and varied questions. Such as, did I really tell him to do that? What F@#$#ing play am I doing? Where is my bottle of whiskey? And what is that growth on my foot? Is that a wart? Why is the skin flaking off? Should I attempt to remove it with a knife? Yes it truly is a magical time in a director's life. I can say without error that this is indeed that silliest production I have ever directed. It moves from pythonesque to surreal to commedia to an entirely new form of comedy which I think i'll call Bradshavian. Of course these things could all just be in my head and indeed what I think is a fantastic production of one of shakespeare's comedies is in reality a mental patient in a padded room with a carrot and an adult diaper for company. Well even if this is the case I am having fun. As a special treat here is the Director's cut of my notes from the program "Here we are at last! It has come to the moment where I as a director have to sit and compose some thoughts on what you are about to view. My relationship with “Shrew” began in the summer of 1962, twenty three years before I was born. I was at the time a communist spy posing as a German cabaret singer called Fifi in a dirty little club in west Berlin. In a stunning and unexpected exposure of my true identity which can be read about in my autobiography “Fifi holds her own” I found myself fleeing for my life to the U.K. where I was fortunate enough… Ok, so that should have sufficiently annoyed the “serious” crowd enough to stop them from reading. WELCOME to the wonderful and silly world of William “Silly Willy” Shakespeare. If you came here tonight expecting a treatise on the rights of women or a grand statement about the issues and problems presented by the play I am afraid you’ll be sorely mistaken. In helping to create and shape tonight’s performance I have “borrowed” from the Italian tradition of Commedia Dell’Arte as much as I have from the great English tradition… “Monty Python”. “The Taming of the Shrew” has always struck me as one big joke, the plot is as implausible as “A Priest and a Rabbi walk into a bar…” The wooing scene of Katherina and Petruchio as rough as Punch and Judy and the punch line… well now that’s where Shakepeare is truly eloquent and like any good joke he makes us look at ourselves and in turn gives us the courage to laugh. Laughter is after all stronger than tears. I sincerely hope you enjoy our silliness and our show. " I am expecting a call from the Nobel prize people any day now... In other Upstart ramblings, we have had a huge publicity drive in the last few days with some very pleasing results. I am looking forward to a good audience turn out on every performance night. Mind you given the fact that I have played to audiences of five my idea of what is a good turn out is probably somewhat different to the majority of the public. Well that's it for now. I'm going to shoot some unicorns before they discover the secret of immortality. Toodle-oo